


Leave your humanity at the door

by Verse



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Gen, Kinda, monster au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-18 00:18:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13088466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verse/pseuds/Verse
Summary: Monsters can be heroes too; the kids taught Crystal that much.





	1. Crystal

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a lil different from what I usually write because- well, it wasn't supposed to be a fic at all, and yet.  
> It all started with me being like 'Crystal, but with shark teeth, discuss" and it got wildly out of hands.

Crystal with razor-sharp teeth and unnaturally blue hair.

The whispers have never stopped, as far as she remember; devil child, monster girl, demi-human, cursed creature. They smile at her with shaky hands and draw knife words when her back is turned.

Her mother loves her, maybe. Maybe enough to send her away from those people who fear her. Maybe unsuficiently to keep her close and fight off the sneers.

Maybe it doesn’t matter at all, but here is the fact: deep into the mountains, Crystal goes training.

It’s scary. She’s alone, petite fragile kid. But she’s so, so much freer here- free to smile with all her teeth out, free to growl and be as violent as she pleases.

*

Her arms break. Painfully. Her cries of pain are raw and animals, a far cry from the humanity she tries to keep in there.

And help comes.

They don’t care, beasts as they are. They don’t care if her teeth are like theirs, if she’s as much like them as she’s akin to humans. It feels… strange. To not have to hide to be appreciated.

She keeps honing her skills. She laughs, she grows. She’s loud and rash and everything she could never allow herself to be.

When Arcanine’s rival shows up, she bares her teeth and fight by his side.

When Crystal comes down the mountain, she’s doesn’t try to hide again.

*

Kids don’t like her. Never did. Yet, somehow, the orphanage children take a liking at her. With little to no adults to tell them to be careful with her, they take her hands to play, encourage her to play the hero with them.

It’s fun. It’s really fun! To interact with actual humans as if she was one.

So Crystal takes odd jobs, here and there. Scraps some money to help up. She may not consider herself human anymore, but this doesn’t mean she is heartless.

She will repair this home, bricks by bricks. Her home.

(Her mother hasn’t quite looked at her in the eyes in years.)

Crystal is a monster in her own rights, and proud to be. But monsters can be heroes too; the kids taught her that much.

When the old man comes with promise for money, she can tell that he is dubious; but her skin is thick as scales, now. So what if he doesn’t like her? Money is money.

She travels around the region, filling up pokeballs after pokeballs. When she phones, she hears about the new wall being built up, the roof being repaired. It warms her like a fireplace.

*

When she meets a strawhat kid, her reason screams  _suspicious_  but her gut feelings say  _friend_. There’s something about this child, something off and different.

It helps that he doesn’t flinch when she smiles.

*

_Those two._

In another place, in another world, two boys crash on Crystal’s boat with quite a bad impression. But here, she’s not the calmest of the three, and it hits her immediately.

Those two.

_Those two._

**Those two.**

_**They’re like her.** _


	2. Gold

They say his father is a pokemon.

To anyone else, this would be the worst insult. But Gold, with his swalling tail and pokemon-filled house, considers it pretty fair. He knows his truth, he doesn’t care about what others have to say about him.

They all know him; loud kid, chaotic kid, good kid. Ironically, they trust him more when he admits to their face to being a trickster. They see the smirk and the confidence and the boldness, and somehow forget about his tail.

(He got the tip from his brother’s swagger; he has a weak tail and working hands, his brother has a strong tail and weak hands. They both find it endlessly funny.)

Gold doesn’t really plan on going on a trip across Johto. Why would he? He has everything he needs here.

And then-

_That ginger kid._

_**He’s like him.** _

The thief's eyes widen and Gold can see him pull on his gloves all the way back up hurriedly- but he felt it, he saw it, _he's like him, he's like him_.

And so Gold-

goes after him.

 _For revenge,_ he says, to whoever asks. (because maybe, just maybe, Gold might have stumbled into the one person who could _understand_.) Professor Oak scowls and tells him that the pokedex isn't a simple battling tool, that it shouldn't be used this way, and really, beg as he might, Gold would never inherit it.

(Oh, please, _as if_ that was the real reason why the old man clutched to his tiny computer. Gold is impulsive, that much is true, but he only pretends to be an idiot. He sees the eyes following his tail, spots the slight hint of fear in the man's face. He knows.)

Yet, by some game of fate, Gold somehow becomes a pokedex holder.

And so, Gold sets off on his journey across Johto.

It’s a game of cat and mouse- one that starts unbearingly frustrating, scavenging any hint and clue he can on his search for his kin.Bbut comes to be incredibly fun. Because this guy is  _like him-_  not as open, but Gold knows what he saw. And Silver, somehow, comes to actually recognize Gold- as a rival, perhaps, maybe even a friend.

Together, they fight a masked man of haze and ice. Gold doesn't know this enemy, but his speech is all too familiar- bla bla, pokemons are tools, bla, just like you, demi-human, bla bla, shut the fuck up.

Silver lands a good punch on the guy, cracking the mask. Gold cheers from the sidelines.

Together, they witness the storm of the lake of rage, prompted by the fury of a dozen rageful gyarados. The red one stands out, much more powerful and angry as its comrades- and for all their differences, Gold can't help but look at the snake and see himself. _I was like this once_ , he thinks.

Silver is the one to catch it. As the bid goodbye, Gold hopes this leviathan will learn the same lesson he did- how to be completely, unapologeticaly, proud and happy to be himself.

Across Johto, Gold runs. He sees incredible things. He meet incredible people. And-

One day, on a rampaging sea, he jumps to help a girl on a boat, and he sees  _teeth._


	3. Fire red, leaf green, stone silver

Set in stone like this, they look almost human.

  
There is nothing, coming from this statue, feeling even slightly like the _home_ senior Yellow reminded them off. Modelized in hard rock, senior Red's horns are indistinguishible from his messy hair; the same goes for senior Blue, whose feathers appear to be part of her clothes to anyone who wouldn't know better. Senior Green alone, the only real human, looks like himself even petrified.

  
And Silver, oh, Silver.

  
It's seeing Silver like this- unmoving and grey and so very cold- it's the sight of Silver that hits them the most; out of those five, he was their closest friend. Out of those five, he was the one, he was the one, the one that made Gold and Crystal realize that _they weren't alone, they weren't alone_.

Gold lets his fingers trail over Silver's stone hands. The gloves were a gift from his sister, he'd told him, long ago; to hide, to protect. To keep his profile low back in a time where ice stalked his steps. The leather-turned-stone is slightly bumpy under his palms, where Silver's knuckle spikes used to be covered.

It feels wrong. Feeling those hands almost as flat as his's, almost as smooth as Crystal's. Seeing them still like Silver only ever were when he was on edge. Silver is as human as he will ever be, and this might be the most jarring thing Gold has ever witnessed.

"...we need to bring him back." Says Crystal, who loved Silver as much as he did, and would not, will not, let herself get ruled by emotions. "We need to bring them back."

Her voice is strained and her hands shaking. But there is a resolution in her tone. That's no statement; it's a promise. An oath, from a half human to another. _We'll have your backs. We'll have your backs._

"I know who to call."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't even close to what I intended to write and yet

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a review in passing! You can also visit me at versegm.tumblr.com


End file.
